FIRE FOLLOW-UP: Warehouse Being Secured

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It was last Thursday when the old Taylor Recycling Plant along Scott Avenue went up in flames.

It took crews four days to get the fire under control.

Neighboring businesses think the building should have been taken care of years ago.

“It`s an eyesore, because you could almost see all the stuff almost rolling out the doors, it was something that needed to be cleaned up,” says Dale Jones.

Jones owns Jones Enterprise and Repair in the neighborhood.

He was forced to close down some of his operations last week because of the smoke.

Now he's ready for the mess to be gone.

“I`ll be glad to see it cleaned up, it looks like an eye sore. The building is half laying down it`s a shame it’s come to that,” says Jones.

Records show the building is owned by Regency Capital Fund LLC, but the corporation filed bankruptcy last year, forcing the city of Des Moines to get involved.

“We`re anticipating that there will be a lack of response from the corporations or there are no assets that they can use to try to solve the problem so we`re taking steps to secure the site,” says Des Moines Community Development Leader Phillip Delafield.

Crews have already pushed the debris away from the road.

Next, a six-foot chain link fence will be installed around the 50,000 square foot property to keep everyone safe while clean up begins.

“There could be asbestos, there could be lead based paint, those sort of things that demolition contractors know how to deal with. The general public should not be in the site, this is not a safe place for children or anyone else and that`s why we`re putting the fence up we want people to stay away,” says Delafield.

The fence will cost $13,000 and clean up estimates before the fire were as high as $400,000.

All those costs the city is temporarily covering.

“We anticipate an expensive clean up. The city has to pay for that up front but in the end we will try to collect those costs from the property owner,” says Delafield.

The city hasn't set an exact timeline for clean-up, however, they expect it will be done before winter.